Generate TOC from FM: Heading 1's don't generate

[mortaine_]

I've looked everywhere and can't find the answer to this problem.

In this question, I'll refer to "Broken.book," "Template.fm," "Clean.fm," and "Works.book" as follows:

* Broken.book - a book created using Template.fm. The Heading 1 TOC problem exists in this book.

* Template.fm - our master template with all of our styles and formatting.

* Clean.fm - a blank, no-styles file used as a template for

* Works.book - a book created with Clean.fm. The Heading 1 TOC problem does NOT exist in this book.

In both books, the TOC paragraph styles have Heading 2 and Heading 3 paragraphs indented below Heading 1.

The problem:

I LINK my Framemaker book (Broken.book) to a Robohelp HTML project (Robohelp 8.0.2, Framemaker 9.0p203, both in TCS 2). I set up the book in Robohelp to use the Framemaker TOC. I set up all my paragraph style mappings. I Generate the FM to RH files.

The RH-created TOC shows the Heading 2 and Heading 3 headings, but not the Heading 1s. When generating a TOC-enabled online help system, like WebHelp, the TOC navigation lacks all Heading 1s.

When I create the Works.book using Clean.fm, the TOC generates correctly.

When I have Robohelp generate a TOC for the book, it includes the Heading 1's (but then it shows all the X-Refs, which I do not want).

Really odd: When I apply each of the formats (I did this individually for process of elimination) from Template.fm to the files in Works.book? The TOC STILL generates correctly.

So, obviously there's something wrong with Template.fm. But WHAT? I can't find the problem-- importing all the formats doesn't break the Works.book in the same way.

All of our Framemaker documents have been created using the Template.fm, and I created the Template.fm myself, using a blank file. So if something's wrong in that file, I have to know what it is so I can fix it across the board.

Thanks in advance for your help. I have a good understanding of Framemaker and ePublisher; Robohelp is new to me, but I've undergone some training in using Robohelp and Framemaker in the TCS, so if you tell me what to look for, I can probably find it. I'm even looking in the MIF file to see if there's some weird little corruption somewhere, but so far, I've found nothing.

Thanks in advance for your help!

--Stephanie

[mortaine_]

An update to the problem: It's not limited to Heading 1's. In the course of troubleshooting (I renamed the Heading 1, 2, and 3 paragraph formats), I managed to lose the Heading 2 styles as well. Heading 3's are still there, however.

[mortaine_]

OK, here's the summary: Adobe doesn't like Microsoft fonts.

I had set Microsoft Sans font for my "Heading n TOC" paragraph styles. Changing JUST the font results in the TOC being generated in Robohelp correctly.

Go figure.

BTW: I can't be the only one who thinks how RH handles TOC generation (by paragraph formatting appearance) is completely wrong, right? I mean, here we have a robust structured authoring environment that is all about structure, structure, structure. And then we use an online help conversion program that basically extrapolates the structure using fonts and indenting-- and does so in a way that's completely opaque to users.

Message was edited by: mortaine_ to be less, um, harsh, in my criticism.

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

Why don't you do your ToC in FM and then tell RH to use it when in the link/import wizard? Then you wouldn't be dependent on how RH creates T0Cs right?

[mortaine_]

Jeff: That's exactly what I did. And when Robohelp brought in the TOC from Framemaker, it removed all my Heading 1's (and later, my Heading 2's) and didn't include them in my TOC-- the actual content beneath the Heading 1 was there, but when the online help was generated, the only way to find it was through Search or Index.

No matter what, you're dependent on Robohelp somehow figuring out what your structure is (unless you're going to manually create TOCs in RH, which I'm not going to do-- I do not invest this much time in using the right headings and formats to have to manually create tables of contents for my online help systems) so that it can make the online help TOC.

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

Oops, sorry, I missed that in your OP.

[Burtin]

I suggest thinking of your .book and TOC file slightly differently.

There is no reason not to have one .book that provides you with one set of features (say, for a PDF version) and a second one that provides you with another set of features (say, for on-line help). You can still conditionalize your content to your heart's content, and it will make it a lot easier for you to maintain the different 'look and feel' of the repurposed material. It will also help you take the control you want back from RoboHelp, as you aren't painted into a corner by thinking everything must be done only one way. TCS 'out of the box' does work just as the folks at Adobe are saying it does, but it's up to us to 'think outside the box' to get what we need out of it. Also, it's up to us to use Adobe's feature request and bug reporting systems to keep Adobe moving in the direction that makes the most sense for us end users. While fora like this one are helpful, it's not necessarily as direct a line to the ears that need to hear what we're saying.

Best regards,

Burtin Hart

[Guest]

Hi,

I have the exact same problem with RH9/FM10, did you solve your problem?

Thanks in advance.

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

It looks like it worked when they changed the font that they were using in the FM ToC.